Mushroom and Tofu Pasta

This pasta is absolutely delicious, and is quite original as well. While it’s hard for pasta to become too repetitive in the first place, throwing in a sauce like this one now and then helps to keep things spicy. The only downside is that you can’t make it very quickly, although it doesn’t take ages either. It’s also a very healthy, cheap version of another, more popular pasta sauce (mushroom, sausage, and mascarpone). I was a bit skeptical of the tofu sausage, but I have to admit, it worked perfectly. The taste created by frying the tofu with the mushrooms, coconut milk, and abundance of pepper, combined with it’s already similar texture made it the perfect substitute for actual sausages in this recipe. And the creamy coconut milk also worked great as a mascarpone replacement, as long as the heat is high enough and you add enough pepper.

Ingredients (serves 2)

200g your favorite kind of mushrooms

2 tofu sausages

100ml coconut milk (very creamy kind)

salt

ground black pepper

2 tbsp margarine

400g your favorite pasta

Preparation (20-25 minutes)

Fill up a pot about halfway with water, throw in a big handful of salt, and leave it to boil (it has to be big enough to fit all of the pasta later). Put all of the margarine on a pan and let it melt. Chop up the mushrooms and throw them on the pan. Sprinkle them with some salt and a lot of pepper. Chop up the tofu sausages into small pieces. When the mushrooms are about half cooked (depends on how crunchy you like them), throw in the tofu sausage pieces. Leave everything to cook until nice and crispy. When crispy, add the coconut milk and turn the heat as high as it will go. By now the water should be boiling. Add the pasta. Stir every 2 minutes or so. On the pack of pasta it should tell you how long it takes to cook. Either way, after about 8 minutes start taking out pasta every now and then and tasting it to see if it’s cooked yet. It shouldn’t be disgustingly soft and overcooked. Don’t do that. Once you’ve judged that the pasta is ready, strain it, throw it back in the pot without any water, and add the sauce straight from the pan. Mix it around, and then just shove it onto your plate and it’s ready for eating!

Tip: this pasta is the perfect thing to make if you’re having friends over. It’s extremely filling, which means you have to make a lot less than you would of other kinds of pasta, but still leaves everyone satisfied. It’s also an excellent pasta to purposely make too much of, and just let it have in your fridge for that meal that you just really don’t feel like cooking.